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Tax Credit case summary 4
Mr and Mrs D were overpaid by approximately £900 in both the 2003/04 and 2004/05 tax years. Mrs D complained about the TCO’s refusal to write off these overpayments. Mr and Mrs D made a claim for tax credits in December 2002. Their award in the 2003/04 tax year was calculated on the basis of Mrs D receiving the Higher Care Component of Disability Living Allowance (DLA HCC). The provisional award for the 2004/05 tax year was also calculated on Mrs D receiving DLA (HCC). Receiving DLA (HCC) entitles the claimant to the severe disability element (SDE) of Working Tax Credit (WTC). Claimants will not be entitled to this element if they are getting the Higher Mobility Component of DLA. In July 2005, the TCO wrote to Mr and Mrs D, asking them to provide evidence to show that Mrs D satisfied the conditions to receive the severe disability element of WTC. It transpired that Mrs D was receiving the Higher Rate Mobility element of DLA. As Mrs D was not receiving the Higher Care Component of DLA, she did not qualify for the severe disability element of WTC. The TCO amended their records accordingly and this meant that Mr and Mrs D had received more money than they were entitled to in the 2003/04 and 2004/05 tax years. Mrs D said that she believed that the HCC referred to in her award notices was the higher element of the mobility allowance (she believed it had changed its name). The TCO contacted the Department for Work and Pensions who said that Mrs D would have been told, in her initial DLA award, that she was receiving the Higher Mobility Component, and subsequent correspondence would have also reflected this.
We did not uphold this complaint. We did not consider that the overpayment arose due to a mistake on the part of the TCO and we also considered that it was not reasonable for Mr and Mrs D to believe their award was correct when her award notices detailed incorrect information about the benefit she was getting. Therefore, the conditions for writing off an overpayment, as set out in COP 26, had not been met and we did not ask the TCO to write off the overpayment.
